Sharpen your newspaper's writing with expert help April 23 at
NIU
Helping to build the 30-inch stack of mail on my desk this week was a
brochure for a writer's workshop in Indianapolis. The workshop looked great,
but the cost ($75 per person, $97 a night hotel) was out of my range.
I dropped the brochure into a file containing a half-dozen other direct-mail
ads for worthy workshops. They included:
* "Overcoming workplace negativity." ("Just $149 per person.")
"Like I don't have enough friggin' work as it is," I said to myself.
* "Mistake-free grammar & proofreading." ("$99 tuition
includes workbook!") "Don't really need it," I typed in a
memo to the publisher.
* "The power of the package, print and online." ($650 for two
days at Chicago Hilton and Towers.) "I've got your package right here,"
I'd have told the organizers, if only I knew how to access our e-mail.
I'm sure everyone who gets this newsletter would love to provide some continuing
education for their staff members. Most of us don't do it because of the
three evil T's: time, travel and tuition.
NINA wants to exorcise that trilogy.
This spring's conference is devoted to giving our members -- and our prospective
members -- the biggest possible bang for the buck. We've invited Neil Hopp, the writing coach for the Northwest Herald, to
lead an intense, powerful seminar on writing.
The cost: $15 per person. The destination: DeKalb. The commitment: seven
hours.
This is the kind of workshop for which you might pay $75 or $99. Your writers
won't have to travel to Timbuktu, and your publisher won't have a chance
to gripe about the hotel bill or expense account spending.
The $15 fee will include a box lunch. It won't be fancy, but it will refuel
your writers for an afternoon teaching session and one-on-one writing critiques.
In one fast-moving day, you'll learn:
* The power of the period.
* Ten guidelines for sentence structure.
* How to fix problems with leads.
* Why "power quotes" are vital.
* How to better organize your stories.
You'll also get handouts, handouts, handouts:
* A compendium of great stories.
* "Writer's Workbench: A treasury of tips and techniques."
* "How you can help your editors/How they can help you."
We'll also provide an opportunity for one-on-one feedback.
Anyone who attends the conference is invited to send in three writing samples
from the week ending March 12. Hopp or another writing coach will review
those samples and meet with each writer for a 15- to 20-minute session between
3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.
.
This program is part of an effort to bring members affordable continuing
education for newspaper people in northern Illinois. It complements other
affordable training sessions planned by Lonny Cain's Education Committee
for the coming year
.
We want this to be the biggest, best and most valuable spring conference
in NINA's history. Please join us April 23 to see how NINA is changing to
meet the needs of newspapers in the new millennium.
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